Brock Online Notes

The US Senate late Thursday passed a $73.9 billion agricultural spending bill for fiscal 2002. The legislation now goes into a conference committee to work out differences with the House, which passed its $74.3 billion version on July 11.

The House bill includes several controversial issues not addressed by the Senate, including a "drug reimportation" amendment that would allow people to buy US-made prescription drugs from abroad by mail and other means.

The new fiscal year began Oct. 1 with Congress having passed just two of the 13 annual spending bills for the new fiscal year. The federal government has been running on temporary spending measures. Both the House and Senate voted without dissent last Thursday to let federal agencies continue functioning through Nov. 16.